Pakistani minister Hanif Abbasi (Screengrab from Pakistani news channel’s X video)
In an ongoing tension between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack, Islamabad minister Hanif Abbasi openly threatened New Delhi with nuclear retaliation and said that 130 missiles, including Shaheen, and Ghaznavi, were kept for India.
“Those Shaheen (missiles), Ghaznavi (missiles), which we have kept arranged in our bases, we have kept them for Hindustan (India). The 130 weapons we possess are not just kept as models — and you have no idea in which parts of Pakistan we have positioned them,” Abbasi said in a presser.
His remarks came after India implemented diplomatic actions on Wednesday, including expelling Pakistani military attaches, halting the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, and closing the Attari land-transit post, citing cross-border connections to the Pahalgam attack.
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He also claimed that India knew where the missiles Pakistan had deployed and this is the reason that they have taken steps back and not attack their country.
“That’s why I am repeating it again: these ballistic missiles, these cruise missiles, this Shaheen, this Ghauri — I repeat — they are not in our showcase, they are directed towards you, not towards anyone else,” he said.
He also said that if India dares to halt Pakistan’s water supply by suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, it should “prepare for a full-scale war”.
The Pakistan minister asked that whenever there is any incident, instead of holding agencies accountable, India put sanctions on another country.
“First, give answers for your own actions; first, hold yourself accountable before pointing fingers at us. So, I want to tell the entire nation and the whole world that they threatened us — and we responded: We stopped the water, stopped the trading, and we began our preparations — that’s what I am saying,” he said.
On April 22, gunmen stormed a group of tourists at the Baisaran meadow, claiming the lives of 26 people and injuring several more in what has become one of the deadliest assaults in the region since the 2019 Pulwama strike. The Resistance Front, a proxy of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, swiftly claimed responsibility, before distancing itself from the attack.
